“SEO Is Dead”… The Reality of SEO in 2026 | AI Search & GEO (Ep 355)

AI search has changed how buyers find you, and most businesses haven't noticed their inbound is quietly drying up. Alejandro Restrepo is GM Australia at StudioHawk, the largest SEO agency in the country. His position on "SEO is dead" is blunt: it's more alive and more important than it has ever been. Here's why. Buyers no longer run one Google search and stop at page one. They search on TikTok, on Reddit, on YouTube, on ChatGPT, on Gemini, on Claude, and every one of those feeds back into AI search. StudioHawk's view is that classic SEO is still about 80% of the work, with a 20% AI layer sitting on top. What you'll learn: → Query fan-out: how ChatGPT breaks one question into thousands and compiles a single answer → Why the mediocre hotel beats the great one in AI recommendations → The two things that actually move the needle: off-site authority and information gain → Why unique data from your own business beats anything an LLM can generate → How a startup with no budget builds authority from directories, profiles and reviews → Why HubSpot lost enormous traffic, and the argument it was never really theirs → Where to aim now: commercial pages, mid-funnel, free tools that AI can't replicate → Real numbers from StudioHawk's own pipeline over 12 months → Why traffic from AI search converts at a higher rate than traditional search If buyers spend more time researching than they ever spend with your sellers, AI search isn't a marketing problem. It's a revenue problem. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.

Sales leadership has a brutal maths problem. The average tenure of a chief revenue officer is about 18 months. Andrew Wildblood ran a $7 billion business at Telstra and led teams across 20 countries. He now advises companies on how to grow. In this episode he explains why sales leadership roles fail before anyone gets a fair run at them. Eighteen months to change out a team, bring in talent, get them up to speed, launch new products and open new markets. His comparison: it's like being a Premier League manager. Don't deliver, you're gone. What you'll learn: → Why "go market in, not company out" beats every other piece of strategy advice → How to obsess on talent and why warm bodies cost you more than empty seats → The question nobody asks: you didn't hire someone because they were bad, so why are they bad six months later → Why busy work is not good work, and what you have to be brave enough to stop → How Vocus bought itself three years by telling the market it was a three year transformation → Why an aligned executive team turns tension into progress instead of politics → The CEO with the easiest diary in the company, and why that was deliberate → Chasing the frozen middle instead of obsessing over your top and bottom performers → What happened at Vocus when Covid hit and they threw the process out of the window Strong sales leadership isn't about pulling every lever at once. It's about knowing which one you pull first, and being given the permission and the time to pull it. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.

AI in sales is supposed to speed your team up, so why is your sales tech stack slowing them down? In this episode, David and Regan unpack what happens when a revenue team buys every tool on the market and still can't move deals forward. They walk through a company that just closed a massive raise, built what looks like the Rolls Royce of tech stacks, and watched their reps get stuck jumping between products. Then they get into the question most leaders skip: do you actually need all of this, or do you need to diagnose the problem first? What you'll learn: → Why tool overload creates a measurable productivity drop, not a productivity gain → How bloated CRMs stretch ramp time for every new hire → Why identical tech stacks make your messaging blend in with competitors → The "data bankruptcy" trend — why teams are cancelling 10-year-old CRMs to keep the 10% of data that matters → The real cost of building internally: an $80K subscription replaced by a $150K wage, plus 80% of someone's week spent maintaining it → What happens to your IP when the person who built it leaves in two years → When micro tools make sense, and when a dedicated vendor's 1,000% focus beats your 10% → Why data sovereignty, governance and SOC 2 belong in the build-vs-buy decision → How free objective audits sometimes talk teams out of buying anything at all If you're treating a tool like a tactic, you're starting in the wrong place. Define the habits and the process first, then pick the tooling that enables them. That's how AI in sales actually compounds instead of adding noise. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.

Master sales coaching that actually moves numbers. Learn why the top 1% of sellers coach themselves while average reps wait to be told what to do 🎟️ Apply for free access to the community session slide deck: https://tally.so/r/Pd09y0 Most sales training assumes coaching comes from above. It doesn't. The highest performers run a self-coaching loop on themselves every week, and that habit is the single clearest difference between an A player and a solid rep who never quite breaks out. If you are a founder, sales manager or account executive, learning to diagnose your own gaps is more effective than waiting for your next one-to-one. We break down the performance triangle, where the top 1% bring in 60 to 80% of revenue, and the skill versus will matrix that tells you exactly which of four quadrants you are sitting in right now. Then we walk the four gaps holding most sellers back, and the six-step system for building the rep on any skill you're weak at. Regan's line: coaching yourself is the one skill 97% of people never do. What you'll learn: → The performance triangle: A players, average sellers, and who ends up on a PIP → Why the top 1% generate 60 to 80% of a team's revenue → The skill versus will matrix and what Regan calls "the exit lounge" → Why the right move for a high skill, high will rep is for the leader to get out of the way → The four gaps: capability, confidence, clarity and commitment, and the fix for each → Why confidence comes from doing it to the point of boredom → Making public commitments so you either back yourself or make yourself a liar → The six steps to build the rep: isolate, drill it, steal it, adopt one thing, review it, score it → Why psychological safety decides whether you can climb the triangle at all This is a practical self-coaching breakdown built on a real community session and real coaching calls, not theory. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday. ……………………………………… Nobody is coming to coach you. Learn the self-coaching system the top 1% of sellers run on themselves every week. Average reps wait to be told what to do next. A players diagnose their own gaps and close them. We break down the performance triangle, the skill versus will matrix, and the four gaps that keep most sellers stuck at average. You will learn the six-step loop for building any skill: isolate one micro skill, drill it out loud, steal the language from someone better, adopt one thing at a time, review a call a week, and score yourself again. This sales coaching approach is essential for account executives and sales managers who want to move up the triangle rather than sit in the middle of it. Watch the full episode at Revenue Leaders 👆. Subscribe for weekly revenue growth breakdowns. 0:00 The Community Call That Started This 0:34 Why High Performance Comes From Self-Coaching 0:59 The Performance Triangle 1:55 Why the 1% Bring 60-80% of Revenue 4:08 Psychological Safety and Moving Between Tiers 5:38 The Skill vs Will Matrix 7:00 High Skill, High Will: Get Support, Then Teach 8:22 Gap 1: The Capability Gap 9:27 Gap 2: The Confidence Gap 10:33 Gap 3: The Clarity Gap 11:03 Gap 4: The Commitment Gap 12:46 Using the Matrix in Promotion Conversations 13:52 The Six Steps to Build the Rep 18:37 The Skill 97% of People Skip 19:09 Get the Slide Deck and Join the Community.

Negotiation skills most buyers never actually learn, that's the gap this episode fills. Sellers go in prepared. Buyers usually don't. Regan and Dave break down the exact negotiation tactic she stole from watching a Grant Thornton partner in a room, and used to turn a $500,000 quote into a hard ceiling of $180,000. What you'll learn: → Why setting a firm price ceiling works better than asking for a discount → The exact language: "nothing over a number starting with X," no explanation, no back-and-forth → Why a 50% discount can actually damage trust instead of building it → How to negotiate payment terms instead of price when the number won't move → The difference between negotiating a $500K deal versus a $5-10K deal → Why discounting below client acquisition cost helps no one → When it's actually okay to walk away from a deal → Why AI-assisted negotiation has already killed at least one real M&A deal This is a practical negotiation skills breakdown built on real numbers and real stories, not theory. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday. ………………………………………

What if your outbound strategy is actually making prospects ignore you? Instead of putting 1,000 prospects into a sequence and hoping someone replies, focus on identifying real buying signals and triggers, researching the prospect, and reaching out with a relevant point of view. In this episode, we break down why mass cadences, generic AI personalized messages, and the “just add more leads” approach are becoming less effective and what to do instead. The answer? Signal-led outbound. A sales cadence built for volume instead of signals is why 1,000 contacts can produce almost nothing. This episode breaks down how to actually turn a thousand opportunities into 50 real deals. Dave and Regan get into why generic, monotonous sales cadences are getting ignored in masses and what signal-led outbound looks like instead. What you'll learn: → Why blasting a sales cadence to 1,000 people kills your response rate instead of boosting it → The real split every seller needs to understand: the 5% actively buying now, and the 95% who need educating first → Why single-channel outreach gets a 0.6% return, while multi-channel, signal-based outreach can hit 10%+ → The "sharpening the axe" analogy: research and signal-spotting looks slow, but it wins → Why outbound will never die, and why it's the one channel you can actually control and forecast → How brand and reputation quietly get burned by low-effort, high-volume sales cadences → Why picking up the phone is still one of the most powerful pattern interrupts available A blunt, honest conversation about what actually works in outbound right now, not theory. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.

AI in sales is the topic every rep is quietly worried about, and this episode flips the usual format to actually ask it out loud. A salesperson interviews the founder to find out if AI in sales will genuinely replace the job, or just parts of it. Dave and Regan break down what's actually happening, backed by real Gartner research, not LinkedIn fear-mongering. → Why AI won't replace salespeople, but it will replace specific tasks within the role → Gartner's stat: 95% of a seller's research time and first drafts can now be done by AI → How top performers are using AI to operate like "the power of ten," not just being more efficient → Why buyer trust is actually at risk when AI outreach gets too generic and obvious → The CV trick job seekers are using to manipulate AI-powered HR screening tools → Why pricing models are shifting from seats to outcomes as AI gets embedded into everything → What roles might not exist as a person at all in five years, and what that means for hiring → The honest answer to: if a rep can be easily replaced by AI, were they really doing the job in the first place? A real, unscripted conversation about AI in sales, not hype in either direction. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://www.ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.

Sales forecasting breaks down the moment a rep refuses to log a lost deal. This episode covers the exact red flags to listen for on a forecast call, including a rep who claims a 90% win rate simply because they never mark anything as lost. Regan and David break down what actually separates an honest, accurate sales forecasting process from one built on ego and hidden losses. What you'll learn: → Why a deal with zero activity should be marked closed lost immediately, no excuses → The professional services trap: reps who never log a loss, they just quietly stop reporting it → Why a "perfect" win rate is usually a sign of bad data, not great selling → Why losing deals is a healthy, necessary part of increasing your real win rate, not something to hide → How to build entry and exit gates between pipeline stages so sellers can't rush a deal through → The real difference between seller enthusiasm and actual buyer intent → Why pushing too hard at quarter-end can turn a buyer into an "anti-sponsor" → How to run a forecast meeting as a brainstorming session instead of an interrogation → Why forecasting cadence should match team size, weekly for small teams, monthly for larger ones This is a practical, honest look at what sales forecasting actually requires, not just theory. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://coachpilot.com/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday. 🎧 Listen to the podcast on other platforms: YouTube: https://bit.ly/4wFY574 Spotify: https://bit.ly/4fxaMuJ

Decision makers are the reason most six-figure deals quietly die. This episode breaks down how to map your buyer's decision makers before you ever get to proposal stage. David and Regan unpack what actually happens when a deal has only one contact: it looks great right up until that person's priorities change, and then it just stops. No pushback, no rejection, just silence. What you'll learn: → Why enterprise deals need at least 15 mapped decision makers, whether you meet them all or not → The real difference between a champion (who drives things internally) and a coach (who just tells you what needs to happen) → How to bring in additional decision makers during discovery, not after you're already at proposal stage → The exact question to ask that surfaces more stakeholders without sounding like a buying question → What to do when your champion refuses to let anyone else into the deal → Why becoming someone's "anti-sponsor" is a real risk if you go around the wrong person → How to spot a one-contact deal in your own pipeline and fix it before it's too late → Why every new decision maker who enters a deal means the problem statement needs to be reassessed If you've got a six-figure deal in your pipeline with only one name on it, this conversation is for you. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): ricavi.ai/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.

Business development is where even the most technically brilliant partners quietly fail. Regs has trained hundreds of partners across accounting, law, and engineering, and he says 80% of lateral partner moves fail to grow their book within 18 months. In this episode, Dave and Regs break down why business development is the skill nobody teaches professional services partners, and what actually separates the ones who succeed from the ones who don't. What you'll learn: → Why 80% of partners who switch firms fail to build their book within 18 months → The real reason: no referral network, no go-to-market training, and a 12-24 month wait before they can even contact old clients → Why "know your ideal client" beats trying to serve everyone, and how to actually define it → The Neil Cook method: consultative selling built on curiosity, not pitching your CV → Why firms, not just individuals, need to own the responsibility when a new partner's book doesn't grow → Why business development should be reframed entirely, it's not "dirty," it's a skill humans have used since childhood → The "avoid the avoidance" rule: doing the scary outreach first, every single day → Why client experience is becoming the real differentiator as trust erodes at the top end of the industry This is a practical, honest conversation about the mental and structural barriers to business development in professional services, not just theory. ⭐ Unlock free resources (templates, frameworks & prompts): https://coachpilot.com/vault 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6FHHzpJk0Kdt0ewEFVBeFP Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/davidfastuca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/luigiprestinenzi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/reganbarker/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfastuca/ 💬 About Revenue Leaders A podcast for founders, sales managers, revenue operators, and GTM leaders who want predictable pipeline, higher win rates, and structured revenue growth. New episodes every Thursday.